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Yours truly, 
THOMAS W. BURTON, M. D. 



What Experience Has 
Taught Me 



An AitiflbuinraiJljg 



OF 



THOMAS WILLIAM BURTON 

Doctor of Medicine, Springfield, Ohio 




Cincinnati 

Press of Jennings and Graham 



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Co the Memory of My Mother 

Though thirty-eight years have come 
and gone 
Since I have seen her face, 
And still that love I have for her, 
There is none can fill her place. 

Her prayers to God for me she sent 

When I was but a youth, 
That I may be a man of worth, 

Love God, and speak the truth. 

Her spirit whispers to me still 

From that eternal bliss, 
Do right, my boy, while there on earth, 

So you may come to this. 

—Thomas W. Burton, M. D. 



P r e f a c e 

My knowledge of the literary world being 
very limited, and knowing the numberless valu- 
able productions which have been and are being 
sent broadcast throughout the world from the 
greatest minds, touching every phase of human 
existence, of every clime, and on every subject 
imaginable, make me feel abashed to offer to the 
public this book, 

"What Experience Has Taught Me;" 

but as God gave me this inspiration to make an 
effort to do something for the purpose of en- 
couraging those who may be less fortunate than 
myself, I shall tell my own story, and in my 
own way, as I saw and experienced it. It shall 
be the aim and object of this book to point out 
things which are beneficial and practicable. 
Yours very truly, 

Thomas W. Burton, M. D. 

5 



Introduction 



By way of introduction to the reading public 
of Dr. Thomas W. Burton, the author of this 
book, I desire to say that the effort that is made 
a success, though it may be opposed by diffi- 
culties, encourages many a hitherto despondent 
one. 

Encouragement is what humanity stands in 
need of, and especially those who have not been 
in the midst of the most favorable surroundings 
for mental and moral development. I am sure 
that any one reading this volume will find much 
to inspire him to earnest and continued effort. 

We have here the history of a man who, like 
Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washing- 
ton, has come up from obscurity and by dint of 
hard study and honesty, and above all by being 
a man of God, has come to honorable distinc- 
tion. 

7 



8 Introduction 

I cheerfully present Dr. Thomas W. Bur- 
ton for the emulation of our young men. Go 
thou and do likewise. 

John Wesley Gazaway. 

August 26, 1907, 

St. Paul A. M. E. Church, 

Zanesville, Ohio. 



Contents 



PAGE 



I. Birth and Parents, - - - 15 
II. Boyhood at the Old Homestead, 25 

III. My First Experience in Working 

for Wages, - - - - -37 

IV. Off for Berea College, Ky., - 47 

V. Back to Refinement Again, - - 57 

VI. First Negro Medical Society in 

Ohio, - - 67 

VII. Member of Faculty, Curry In- 
stitute, - - - - - 83 

VIII. Sent as a Delegate to National 

Negro Business League, - 95 

IX. As a Christian Worker, - - 111 

X. People Should Think For 

Themselves, - - - - 121 

9 



Illustrations 



Thomas W. Burton, M. D., - - Frontispiece ^ 

The Old Log Cabin in Which Thomas was Born, - 16 

The Big House Where Thomas's Owners Lived, - 20 

Thomas Hauling Hay from the Meadow to the Barn, 26 

Rev. John G. Fee, Founder of Berea College, Ken- 
tucky, 1858, ----- 30 

Mrs. Matilda H. Fee, - - - - 31 

Thomas Off for Berea College, Ky., January 1, 1881, 48 

Waco, Ky., School, Taught by Thomas, 1885-1886, 58 
Thomas Receiving the Degree of M. D., March 24, 

1892, - 60 

Range of Mounds Near Newark, Ohio, - 62 

Professor E. W. B. Curry, the Negro Orator and 

Educator, --.---.54 

Thomas Presiding Over the Ohio State Association, 68 

Dr. Horace R. Hawkins, Xenia, O., Post-Graduate, 76 

Thomas Reducing a Dislocated Arm, - - - 81 

Thomas Removing a Fibro-Cystic Tumor, 84 

Thomas Reading a Paper at Put-in-Bay, Ohio, - 86 

Dr. William Chavis, - 90 

Dr. Thomas W. Burton and Family, - - - 112 

11 



12 Illustrations 

Facing 
Page 

Dr. Thomas W. Burton's Residence, Springfield, O., 114 
Dr. Thomas W. Burton Having the Connubial Knot 

Tied, -------- 118 

A Group of Members of the Ohio State Medical 

Association, - - - - - 122 

Dr. Burton Performing an Autopsy on the Largest 

Woman in Springfield, - - 124 



Birth and Parents 



CHAPTER I 
BIRTH AND PARENTS 

I have been often asked by my friends why 
I did not write a book. I felt as though I had 
not accomplished anything for which to write 
a book. Then I thought perhaps I might drop 
a word of inspiration to those who may be less 
fortunate than myself, as it is my aim always to 
help, and not to hinder. 

I was born May 4, 1860, in Madison County, 
Kentucky, a little way from Richmond (its 
county seat) and near the banks of Tates Creek 
and Shallow Ford. My father and mother were 
slaves at the time of my birth. My father's 
name was Edward, and the name of my mother 
was Eliza. I do n't remember very much about 
my father, because he died when I was only five 
years of age. I remember more about my 
mother, because I was nine years of age when 
she died. My father and mother were blessed 

15 



16 What Experience Has Taught Me 

with fifteen children, of which I was the 
youngest. 

There were other slaves on the place besides 
our family. My mother could weave, and did 
the weaving for those who were on the place. 
I can remember seeing mother sitting at her 
loom, day after day, weaving the blue and brown 
jeans for the men folks, and the linsey and tow- 
linen for the women and children. In summer 
time I wore only one garment, and that was a 
tow-linen shirt. It was made something on the 
order of the Mother Hubbard, and was very cool 
and nice, too. 

My father and mother were not educated. 
They knew nothing about books, only my mother 
knew her alphabet; and that she taught me, and 
is about all I knew concerning an education un- 
til I became twenty-one years of age. Mother 
was a good woman; she was a member of the 
white Christian Church, as there was not a col- 
ored Church in that neighborhood. So every 
Sunday mother would take us children to Shal- 
low Ford meeting-house, known as Mt. Gilead, 
until I was a big boy. The first two or three 





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Birth and Parents 17 

rows of seats from the door, or rear of the 
church, were the places where the colored people 
had to sit; but they seemed to enjoy the services 
equally as well as the whites, and I am sure of 
one thing, aside from the line that was already 
drawn, I was made to feel more welcome there 
than I have been made to feel in some of my 
own Churches since I became a freeman. I have 
gone into Churches where the people stood so 
very far apart spiritually that it would make 
cold chills glide stealthily through my whole 
body. 

In those days people were delighted to wel- 
come strangers as well as those of their acquaint- 
ance in the church. As young as I was, I re- 
alized that I was a slave by often seeing the 
older folks sitting with their heads close to- 
gether, and could hear them whisper, "Some day 
I believe we will be free." We children, of 
course, had to go to bed with the chickens. We 
were put in a trundle-bed, and then pushed un- 
der the big bed, there to remain until next morn- 
ing. Very often after we were put to bed we 
could hear the older folks having such a good 



18 What Experience Has Taught Me 

feast, and it would smell — O, my ! — so delicious ; 
but we had to stay under there just the same. 
There was a counterpane made for the big bed 
so as to reach the floor, and when it was pulled 
down we little ones could not see out. 

The old log-cabin in which I was born con- 
sisted of two rooms; one down, and the other up. 
We had to go up in the loft by means of a 
wooden ladder. In the lower room was a large 
fireplace which would easily heat the two rooms. 
One large rock, three by six feet, was placed in 
front of the fire for a hearth. On this big rock 
mother would do a great deal of the cooking by 
pulling the big coals out of the fireplace and 
placing them under the skillets, and the embers 
on the lids. The boils and stews would be cooked 
in pots and kettles, which hung over the fire on 
racks and tripods. Two windows were in this 
cabin ; one in the lower room, and the other above. 
There were two doors, both below; one on each 
side of the house. 

About one hundred feet north of the cabin 
stood, and still stands, the big house in which 
lived our owners. Around this house was a beau- 



Birth and Parents 19 

tiful lawn. The building was in a commodious 
place and could be seen from afar off. How 
well I enjoyed to play about that lawn and prem- 
ises! When I became big enough to do chores 
I was kept somewhat busy at times. 

People took great pride in training children 
those days, as they best could and knew how. 
They had instilled in them the moral virtues 
which Solomon so beautifully pointed out: 
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and 
when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. 
22 : 6) . Some people of to-day think if they are 
a little strict on their children they will either 
offend the child or discourage it. And the child, 
of course, will soon learn to take advantage of 
its parents' leniency and, as it grows older and 
wiser, it will and does in reality offend and dis- 
courage its parents. "Chasten thy son while 
there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his 
crying." (Prov. 19: 8.) God corrects His chil- 
dren because He loves them, and not because He 
has the power to treat them cruelly. There is 
only one being who really does meanness for the 
fun there is in it, and that is the devil. "With- 



20 What Experience Has Taught Me 

hold not correction from the child, for if thou 
beatest him with a rod, he shall not die." (Prov. 
23:13.) If a child is brought up carelessly, 
evidently he will transact business carelessly 
through life and become a dwarf in the commer- 
cial world. If a mother is telling her neighbor 
something which took place the day before, per- 
haps, one of her children is apt to take the words 
from her mouth and say, "That is not the way, 
mother; it was such and such a way." The 
mother, of course, thinking it cute in the child, 
will give way and let the child have the floor. 
Then the mother begins to tell the cute and great 
things the child has done, in the presence of the 
child. In my childhood days, when the old folks 
had company one would not know that there was 
a child on the place unless they saw us. Espe- 
cially when they were talking, there was no dan- 
ger of the children chipping in. If we were too 
loud or boisterous, just a look or pointing of the 
finger was enough. A child is often spoiled now- 
adays by the parents threatening it so very much, 
but never putting those threats into execution. 
Knowing the fact that it has been getting out 



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Birth and Parents 21 

of mischief so easily, it grows up caring but lit- 
tle for obligations. "Correct thy son, and he 
shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight 
unto thy soul." (Prov. 29:17.) 

Parents, be positive, but not cruel; for these 
are God's jewels. They are the future genera- 
tion, and are at your mercy to mold or shape in 
any fashion you desire. 



Boyhood at the Old Homestead 



CHAPTER II 

BOYHOOD AT THE OLD HOME- 
STEAD 

After the death of my mother, in 1869, I 
still remained at the old homstead until I was 
sixteen years of age, working for what I could 
eat and wear. I did not know what it was to 
work for wages until I left the place to stay. 
While on the place I learned to do all kinds of 
house and farm work. I certainly appreciate the 
fact that I can do all of these things even to-day. 
The man who can do these things is somewhat 
independent, even though he may not have a dol- 
lar. There were no schools in that neighborhood 
for colored children, and of course I had no 
chance to get an education at that time. But 
there was a college twenty miles south from 
where I lived, known as Berea, organized in 1855 
by that fearless and devout Christian gentleman,* 
Rev. J. G. Fee, for men, regardless of color or 

25 



26 What Experience Has Taught Me 

nationality. Its name is borrowed from that 
place mentioned in the New Testament, whose 
inhabitants were "more noble than those of Thes- 
salonica, because they searched the Scriptures 
daily." It had the words on the college seal as 
a motto: "God hath made of one blood all na- 
tions of men." I could hear the older ones about 
the place talking about that school so very much 
that it would make the fire of inspiration burn 
within me. Then, on the other hand, I would 
become discouraged when the sad news came that 
the Rev. John G. Fee was being mobbed on all 
sides because he took the stand he did, of an abo- 
litionist, and established a mixed school, espe- 
cially in a slave State. Upon one occasion, when 
Mr. Fee was preaching in Madison County, near 
by, on the subject of "Christian Union," and was 
accompanied by Robert Jones, a native of the 
county, and Messrs. Field and Marsh, residents 
in that vicinity, there was apprehension of dan- 
ger, and Mr. Fee had been consulted as to the 
propriety of carrying guns. He said, "No; if 
I am disturbed I will appeal to the courts." He 
believed in the right of self-defense, but was op- 



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Boyhood at the Old Homestead 27 

posed to the practice of carrying arms, and be- 
lieved they were more often a source of danger 
than a means of safety. 

The sermon had commenced when a mob of 
sixty men with pistols and guns surrounded the 
house. One came in and said to Mr. Fee, "There 
are men here who wish you to stop and come out." 
He replied, "I am engaged in the exercise of a 
Constitutional right and a religious duty; please 
do not interrupt me," and preached on. The 
man went out, and soon two others returned and 
demanded that he come out. He preached on. 
They seized him and dragged him out, no resist- 
ance being made. Men with a rope swore they 
would hang him to the first tree unless he would 
promise to leave the county and never return 
He replied, "I am in your hands; I would not 
harm you if you harm me; the responsibility is 
with you; I can make no pledge; duty to God 
and my country forbid." They swore they 
would duck him in the Kentucky River as long 
as life was in him unless he would promise to 
leave the county. He said: "I am a native 
of the State. I believe slavery is wrong. I am 



28 What Experience Has Taught Me 

acting for the good of my country and all her 
people. You will know my motives at the judg- 
ment." He had proceeded but a few moments 
when one exclaimed, "We didn't come here to . 
hear a sermon; let us do our work." They 
stripped Robert Jones naked, bent him down, 
and gave him thirty-three lashes with three syca- 
more rods. He was so injured that he could not 
walk the next day; but he made no pledges and 
did not leave. They said to Mr. Fee, "We will 
give you five hundred lashes if you do not leave 
the county and promise never to return." He 
knelt down and said, "I will take my suffering; 
I can make no pledge." Later two lawyers were 
engaged to prosecute in behalf of him and Jones. 
The mob met in Richmond and swore they would 
give five hundred lashes to any lawyer who would 
prosecute the cases. The grand jury never in- 
quired into it. This is one of many such mobs 
through which Rev. John G. Fee went in those 
days. 

The nearest I got to go to school was when 
I would take my young master to his school, a 
distance of about two miles, on horseback; so as 



• Boyhood at the Old Homestead 29 

to bring the horse back, that he might be used for 
other purposes, such as going to the grist mill, 
plowing the corn, and going errands. Wherever 
I went I had to get back before night came on 
me too far, as the Kuklux were quite thick in 
that vicinity and did a great deal of harm to the 
colored people. Kuklux is tlie fantastic name of 
a secret society which was organized among many 
Southern secessionists after the Civil War for 
the purpose of overawing Negroes and new- 
comers from the North by all manner of violence, 
and they did some daring and hideous things to 
the colored people. Sometimes I would visit my 
cousin to spend the night, who lived not far away 
on Shallow Ford; and there being a public road 
alongside the creek, about nine or ten o'clock we 
would hear the roaring, thundering sounds from 
the horses' feet, seemingly about two thousand 
in number. When they came near some people's 
houses whose lamps and candles were burning, 
they would shout, "Lights out!" If the occu- 
pants of the house did not extinguish those lights 
at the command immediately, a bullet from with- 
out would. Of course, orders were usually 



30 What Experience Has Taught Me 

obeyed. It was the usual custom to go to peo- 
ple's houses at night, and see them greet one an- 
other in the dark, as there were no lights in the 
house except that which came from the fireplace, 
or grease lamps which gave a very poor light at 
the very best; and by the use of the latter the 
house was so impregnated with amorphous car- 
bon that it would make it a little unpleasant for 
the people of this day and date. And yet, by 
such lights they would enjoy themselves at 
dances, parties quilting and apple-peeling in the 
fall of the year, in order that they might have 
dried apples for the winter. Later on, after the 
fear of the Kuklux had somewhat subsided, there 
was great enjoyment at corn-shucking in the fall 
of the year by the light of the moon. From 
twenty-five to thirty neighbormen would enter a 
corn field and husk it out in a single night. 
After the task was done a big feast would fol- 
low. People took such pride in those days in 
helping one another, and in return their efforts 
were appreciated. 

When I was about the age of sixteen years I 
felt as though I ought to be earning some pocket 




REV. JOHN G. FEE, 
Founder of Berea College, Ky., 1858. 




MRS. MATILDA H FEE. 



Boyhood at the Old Homestead 31 

change, so as to be like some of the rest of the 
boys with whom I was associating. And, too, 
like most boys at that age who are inexperienced, 
I wanted to leave the plantation so as to see more 
of the world and its doings, but did n't know ex- 
actly how to go about it to get away. So one 
day I made the old boss mad, and instead of him 
telling me to leave, he simply gave me a good 
thrashing and told me to go to work. Delighted 
I was to obey. I shall never forget my early 
training on the farm. Farming in those days 
was somewhat rude, and seemed to those who 
took a part that they were making a great head- 
way. 

During the time of hay harvest several men 
were put in the field with a scythe each, who 
would cut the hay. Another crew of men would 
follow these with two-tine wooden pitchforks, 
the timber of which was either dogwood, beech, 
or black hickory. These pitchforks were prized 
very highly and could stand the test of strain 
really better than our most modern ones. The 
men would take these forks and windrow the hay. 
After this was done they would put it into 



32 What Experience Has Taught Me 

shocks, and then, by means of an ox-cart, would 
haul it near the edge of the meadow, and there 
put it into stacks. 

When it came to the cutting of wheat, rye, 
oats, and barley, it was done by means of cradles. 
The man who could carry the cradle day after 
day, all through harvest, was serviceable to the 
community in which he lived, as also were those 
who could handle the scythe skillfully. Few 
men can handle a scythe successfully so as to 
make each stroke count while cutting hay or 
grass. When the rye, oats, barley, and wheat 
crops were not so very large, and the men pretty 
well up with their work, they would thrash out 
the grain by means of hickory sapplings. These 
sapplings were cut in lengths from six to eight 
feet ; the small branches, of course, were trimmed 
off so as to be easily manipulated, and about 
eighteen inches from the larger end the sapplings 
were made flexible by pounding on them with a 
heavy hammer or something of the kind. A por- 
tion of the soil was scraped away so as to re- 
semble a cock-pit. On the floor of this was 
spread a large sheet or canvas. The sheaves of 



Boyhood at the Old Homestead 33 

the grain were carefully placed one by the other, 
the heads of which were pointing toward the cen- 
ter of the pit. The men would pound on the 
heads of the sheaves with these sapplings until 
the grain was thoroughly threshed out. At the 
same time the straw was being put into a rick. 
To separate the grain from the chaff, the grain 
was scooped up and poured into the hopper of a 
large instrument known as a fan, with a man at 
the crank. Those who had large crops, in order 
to thrash the grain, would make a ring resem- 
bling a circus ring; it was prepared just as the 
above; but in this ring horses were placed, with 
boys on their backs. I had to ride in one of those 
rings till I was sick of it. It seemed as though 
it was such a pleasure to work on the farm at 
that time, and should be so to-day. After the 
ground was broken up we only had in way of 
small plows the shovel, double-shovel, and bull- 
tongue. Whole fields of corn had to be hoed in 
those days. I really believe that the corn does 
better, if no more than to keep it clean of weeds. 



My First Experience in Working 
for Wages 



CHAPTER III 

MY FIRST EXPERIENCE IN WORK- 
ING FOR WAGES 

After leaving my old homestead I hired to 
a man to work on a farm for four dollars per 
month. I held that job for twelve months. For 
a short time thereafter I fell into the hands of 
evil associates, and, of course, inexperienced and 
lacking the proper training early in life, I was 
led off, as is natural for man to love darkness 
rather than light, because of his evil deeds (John 
3: 19), I got out of work, and that led to idle- 
ness; from idleness to drunkenness. I used to 
think that man should always be able to meet 
conditions of environment; but I have learned 
from experience that environment has a great 
deal to do in making the man, especially so if 
the man is ignorant and inexperienced. There 
are thousands of men and women to-day in 

prisons who would not be there if at certain 

37 



38 What Experience Has Taught Me 

times in their lives they could have gotten a few 
words of encouragement from those who were 
more fortunate than themselves. Not every man 
or woman you see in low places or in bad com- 
pany has an evil heart in them. Certainly not. 
A great many are forced into these places on ac- 
count of their environments, and while they be- 
come discouraged and remain there, a good many 
other people who are not there with these un- 
fortunates but who are just as bad point the 
finger of scorn at those in the gutter instead of 
helping them out. There was that sinner who 
went of her own accord to the feast which Simon 
had prepared for Jesus Christ, and received a 
blessing because she had the right kind of mo- 
tives and heart within her. (Luke 7:36-50.) 
Simon himself murmured because of the wom- 
an's former character and reputation. Man's 
mind is never still; it is always busily engaged. 
If it is not engaged in something edifying, it is 
engaged in something degrading. 

After a man or woman has a certain amount 
of experience, he or she can set into operation vi- 
bratory forces which go out and which make their 



First Experience Working for Wages 39 

impress felt somewhere, and which, arising into 
activity or uniting with other forces, set about to 
actualize their desires. Our thoughts make us 
what we are here and hereafter. Some people 
plod along daily without thought, care, ambition, 
or anxiety. Of course, it is a waste of time to 
try to reform such people as those. But do not 
judge all alike because they are all in the same 
crowd; but rather look after the ones who are 
willing to listen and follow a good advice when 
given at the right time and in the right way. 
I say at the right time and in the right way be- 
cause those people can not be won at all times. 
"To every thing there is a season." (Eccl. 3.) 
If this class of people is approached in the right 
way, then, through the law that "like builds like," 
they will be able to come a little closer to it the 
next day, and still closer the next, and the next, 
until sooner or later comes the time when it will 
become natural for them to fall into the right 
channel. And once there, they very often be- 
come beacon lights, living only in the thought 
of love for all. And while they live in the 
thought of love for all, they will draw love to 



40 What Experience Has Taught Me 

them in return. But the one who lives in the 
thought of malice or hatred, malice and hatred 
will come back to them. 

In order to be successful in life one should 
always look on the bright side of life. If we 
dwell upon the negative side it will prove to be 
destructive. If you let your daily talk be about 
sickness and disease, you will do yourself harm 
and those also who listen to you. This has ref- 
erence to chronic complainers. But the young 
man whose mind is completely unhinged from 
the effects of strong drink is to be pitied. 
"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, 
but the end thereof are the ways of death." 
(Prov. 14:12.) This opinion was one under 
which I was laboring when my brain was in a 
morbid condition, and my nervous system, owing 
to the absorption of alcohol or to sympathy with 
the stomach, was stealing my intellectual and 
moral faculties because I was straying from that 
path in which my mother started me in youth. 
Strong drink was eating up my substances; it 
was devouring my health ; it was gnawing off the 
fine edges of my sense of honor ; in short, it was 



First Experience Working for Wages 41 

ultimately swallowing me down body and soul. 
One need not expect an inebriate to reform by 
giving him punches, knocks, and blows, such as 
I received when in that predicament; but it re- 
quires time and patience and, above all, self -will. 
We are morally bound by our profession as 
Christians to throw all of our influence against 
intemperance in every form. Evidently we 
will find our labors ridiculed and our efforts 
thwarted by those whom we intend to benefit, 
like Isaiah, the prophet of old; but we should 
let nothing daunt us for the good of the cause 
and for the sake of our Lord and Savior Jesus 
Christ. 

The world is certainly full of temptations of 
the flesh, and we are certainly our brother's 
keeper ; we must put aside strong drink in every 
form : it is an enemy to mankind, dragging down 
the weak to eternal ruin. No one can live to 
himself alone. Every one should help the other. 
This tests one's Christianity, which is not true 
and sincere if it does not mean Christian brother- 
hood. 

After being led by those who were equally 



42 What Experience Has Taught Me 

unfortunate as myself, for a number of months, 
I thought that I would get me another job. So 
another man hired me for the sum of eight dol- 
lars per month, and I worked for him for that 
price three consecutive years as a farm hand, and 
thought at the time that I was getting pretty fair 
wages ; I am sure that I was doing a man's work, 
and felt myself much of a man physically. 

At the close of each year I worked for that 
man I saved the better part of my earnings, as 
I did not need many clothes while I was working 
on a farm. My every-day apparel had so many 
patches about them that one could not tell the 
original pattern, especially in the fall of the year, 
during corn-cutting season. Then there seemed 
to have come over me another state of mind: to 
use up my money as fast as I earned it ; it did n't 
matter at what I was working, for I would take 
my little drink occasionally when I was not on 
duty, until I began to move in a better circle of 
society, when I became spiritually-minded and 
recognized the fact, if I lived in that thought, it 
was to be in harmony and peace. I began to 
realize that God stood ready always to receive 



First Experience Working for Wages 43 

those who were willing to come to Him and be 
accepted as His children. And that man for- 
gets, but God never does. 

So early in the spring of 1880 I was con- 
verted to God, and was baptized in Burnum's 
Pond, Richmond, Ky., the third Sunday in June 
of that year, by the Rev. Madison Campbell. 
After that I started out with a higher realization 
and to open myself more fully to the divine in- 
flow, so much so that I could clearly see my in- 
significance as a man. The young lady with 
whom I was keeping company was a graduate 
from the high school, and I could not read nor 
write. I began to think that was an awful thing, 
and so it was. So I said to the people with whom 
I was living that I was going to quit drinking, 
and save up my money and go to school and get 
an education, so as to be like other young men 
with whom I was then associating. Quite a few 
of those who were not educated themselves would 
say to me, "Tom, I hear you are going to school!" 
And when I would answer in the affirmative they 
would say: "You had better go to work and pay 
your debts, and get yourself some clothes, be- 



44 What Experience Has Taught Me 

cause you are too old a man to be going to school. 
You 11 never learn nothing." But I had my 
mind made up to go to school and let drink alone, 
and nothing was going to stop me but sickness 
or death. So I started out to fulfill part of 
my advice in the way of paying my debts, but 
had no time to save money sufficient to buy 
clothes before winter term opened at Berea Col- 
lege, Kentucky, for that was a place I had been 
anxious to go to for many years, and now was 
my real opportunity. 



Off for Berea College, Kentucky 



CHAPTER IV 

OFF FOR BEREA COLLEGE, KY. 

It was during the month of January, 1881, 
I started for Berea, a distance of fifteen miles 
from Richmond, Ky., which I was then claim- 
ing as my home. No railroad connected the two 
places at that time, nothing but a hack line, which 
was run by Mr. Van Winkle, who lived in Berea. 
The fare was only seventy-five cents one way, 
but I thought I could not afford to pay that ; so 
I started out the Big Hill Pike, walking, wear- 
ing a blue jeans suit, slouch hat, and stocky 
boots. The legs of my pantaloons were so small 
that I could not wear them on the outside of my 
big boots, therefore I just simply stuffed them 
within and went on. A carpet bag on my back, 
containing a few articles, and nine dollars and 
seventy-five cents in my pocket, I reached Berea 
College at nightfall the same day I started. 
After resting over night, I went along the next 

47 



48 What Experience Has Taught Me 

morning with a lot of other boys to the treas- 
urer's office to matriculate for the winter term. 

At that time a student could work at the col- 
lege, so as to pay a part of his schooling. At 
Howard Hall, a dormitory for the boys, was a 
mess club run by those who were not able to 
board at the Ladies' Hall, the regular boarding 
place. There were twenty-five students at this 
mess club waiting for a cook. After I matricu- 
lated in part, and returned to the hall, some one 
asked me if I could cook. "Why, sure thing," 
I remarked. I took the job and cooked for the 
boys that whole term, went to school, and did 
my own laundrying on Saturdays. I entered the 
primary department and learned to write a let- 
ter, and received an answer to it that winter for 
the first time in my life. May 4th of that year 
(1881) I was twenty-one years of age, and felt 
myself very important because I could read and 
write and was of age. 

After Commencement of that year I went 
into the harvest field and did anything my hands 
could find to do ; so when fall term opened I was 
there to hear the first stroke of the old college 







Thomas off for Berea College, Ky., January 1, 1881. 



Off for Berea College, Ky. 49 

bell. I then entered the intermediate depart- 
ment and remained in school the fall and winter 
terms, but had to go to work the spring term. 
I left with the determination to make money 
enough so as to return in the fall and remain in 
school the whole nine months. I found my way 
to Maysville, Ky., and there I worked for a 
contractor by the name of Mr. Tom Curr. He 
put me to digging sewers with a lot of other men, 
and from that to shoveling coal from the barges 
on the Ohio River. Thinking, perhaps, that I 
could make more clear money as a roustabout on 
the river, I got me a job as roustabout on the 
Morning Mail, a boat then running between 
Maysville and Cincinnati. That job reminded me 
more of slavery than any I had met since the 
real days of slavery, but I thought I could stand 
anything physically that any other man could. 
I worked with a new determination and returned 
to Berea that fall and entered the normal prepar- 
atory department, but had to leave again the fol- 
lowing spring term because my money ran short. 
I found by this time that the farther advanced I 
got the more money it took to keep me in school. 

4 



50 What Experience Has Taught Me 

That year there was a railroad to be built from 
Winchester, Ky., down to and across the Ken- 
tucky River; up through Shear's Bottom, past 
the Red House to Richmond; then to Berea, 
where there never was a railroad before; and 
from there to Round Stone, in the mountains. 
I got me a job on this road as steel driver and 
helped put through three tunnels, including that 
one in Berea. I worked at this job six months 
without stopping for school this time. And 
right here, again, is another proof that environ- 
ment has a great deal to do in shaping the man. 
While all of our advantages are to be im- 
proved, our opportunities to be enjoyed, and our 
responsibilities to be met and discharged, if we 
are negligent of our Christian duty we are sure 
to become pessimists, and pessimism leads to 
weakness. If we fail in caring for the interest 
of ourselves, as well as for the interest of our 
Maker, we must receive punishment. It is not 
the mere possession of a thing that works for 
good, but it is the use to which we put it. Ad- 
vantages, money, and health amount to nothing 
unless rightly managed. So while on the rail- 



Off for Berea College, Ky. 51 

road, driving steel, associated with rough fellows 
from all parts of the country, I became rough 
too, to a certain extent, in order to hold my own. 
Some may say that you do n't have to be rough 
because you are thrown in rough society. I 
learned from experience that you do have to be- 
come rough, and very rough, too, sometimes. 
Nearly every man, and boy, too, you saw would 
either have an ugly-looking knife or a revolver, 
and they did not carry them for fun. After 
working there a while, and after seeing and ex- 
periencing a few things, I started out with one 
revolver; but as time went on and I became a 
little more experienced in that business I carried 
a pistol on each hip, and a free-for-all fight was 
no more than a game of baseball would be to a 
civilized crowd. An officer was in very poor 
business to interfere with us unless he caught us 
unawares. So when I returned to school the fol- 
lowing winter I took my pistols along, of course, 
with my reputation as a "scrapper." 

There was a white man who lived in the vil- 
lage near the school, and who, too, was a former 
classmate of mine. He turned out to be a des- 



52 What Experience Has Taught Me 

perado, and at times he was a terror to the town 
and school. His brother and another student 
had a misunderstanding one day. The brother 
of the desperado told his side of the affair to 
suit himself, and without investigating the mat- 
ter the desperado said he was going to kill the 
student at first sight ; and he meant it. The stu- 
dent did not know the desperado, nor did the 
desperado know the student. And, too, the stu- 
dent was studying for the ministry. There were 
three white merchants who heard of the affair 
and offered the student revolvers ; but he refused 
them, saying, "I will trust in the Lord." With 
an oath they said, "You had better trust in these 
pistols, because that man means to kill when he 
says he is going to kill." Some one told the stu- 
dent to ask counsel of me concerning the matter. 
By that time the student was getting somewhat 
worked up over the matter. So on Saturday 
afternoon the student came to see me. After he 
had related the affair, I did not say a word, but, 
knowing the desperado as I did, turned to my 
trunk, took out one of my best pistols (for I 
had three), well loaded, handed it to him, and 



Off for Berea College, Ky. 53 

went on, and would not listen to any argument. 
With reluctance he took the pistol home. Just 
hefore Sunday-school time the next morning 
(for we all had to go to Sunday-school) the 
student said there came a peculiar feeling over 
him, such as he had never felt before; and that 
something seemed to say to him, "You had bet- 
ter put that pistol up your coat sleeve when you 
start for Sunday-school this morning, because 
you are going to meet your antagonist." The 
college bell began to peal for Sunday-school ; the 
student could no longer remain in the house, and 
without realizing what he was doing he shoved 
the handle of the pistol up his sleeve, manipulat- 
ing the muzzle with the fingers, and started off 
for Sunday-school. About one hundred yards 
away from the house he noticed two persons com- 
ing towards him riding double on horseback, and 
when they came near him he recognized the des- 
perado's brother. As soon as the boy saw him 
he shouted, "There he is !" The desperado then, 
with an oath, began to make his usual hip move- 
ment; but it was too late, the student was too 
quick for him. When the student saw the han- 



54 What Experience Has Taught Me 

die of the desperado's pistol he pointed my pistol 
in the desperado's face and said: "I dare you to 
move a muscle. If you do, I will shoot the top 
of your head off." And he meant what he said. 



Back to Refinement Again 



CHAPTER V 
BACK TO REFINEMENT AGAIN 

After I had entered the college preparatory 
department I began to think seriously as to what 
my future mission should be, and in order to 
be successful in life I must have God's help. So 
I asked God to reveal to me what He would like 
to have me do. There was a day set apart by 
the county superintendent of schools for all 
those who wished to teach school to go to Rich- 
mond, Ivy., and take the examination. I availed 
myself of the opportunity and took the exami- 
nation, and received a certificate. I taught the 
school at Waco, Ky., in 1885 and 1886, but 
powders, pills, and the sciences of medicine and 
surgery kept haunting me. 

I went to the city of Indianapolis, Ind., in 
1889 and went under the instructions of Dr. 
William Chavis, as my preceptor. The winter 
of 1890-91 was spent in the Medical College of 
Indiana. The term of 1892 being spent in the 

57 



58 What Experience Has Taught Me 

Eclectic College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
from which I graduated on March 24, 1892. I 
had to partly work my way through the Indian- 
apolis schools by waiting table, working in lum- 
ber yard and in private families. Some of these 
families certainly made me toe the mark; so 
much so that at one place were two girls also 
working : one did the cooking and the other was 
the nurse; and, of course, I was second help. 
The landlady's mother lived with her, and she too 
kept things moving along with such rapidity that 
the following verses came to me: 

SERVANTS. 

I am the second help, 

While Annie is the cook; 
Emma sees after the children, 

Then the old woman takes a look. 

She looks to keep us busy — 
Good deal of that is done — , 

Then goes back in a pace 

As though she 3 s having fun. 

She then reports to the young one, 

To see what she will say; 
Then it comes for my time 

To drive them both away. 



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Back to Refinement Again 59 

Down in town we will go, 

To see the styles that come, 
Stop an hour a place, 

Come out, and yet buy none. 

Patience and spunk a man requires 
To be in a coachman's place; 

But, if liberty he expects, 
Must fight to win the race. 

Physically, or mentally, if required, — 

If there J s no other way, — 
Let them know that you are a man, 

And that you 're there to stay. 

We get very mad and vexed sometimes, 
And declare, by the way, we will go; 

But toil on another day, 
And not a word of it so. 

The work, the work, I have to do, 

Both out of doors and in; 
Go to the barn, hook up old Kate, 

To drive away 'gain. 

I feel as though a slave sometimes, 

But little joy I see; 
Just toil on from sun to sun, 

As busy as a bee. 



60 What Experience Has Taught Me 

And so it goes every day, 

Going on our feet; 
But when it comes to the table, 

We have but little to eat. 

Such as apples, oranges, and bananas, 

Those we never see, 
Only with her in passing 

Behind the loch and key. 

It seems as though I am getting fat; 

It 's not from what I eat, — 
I wash a rig once a day, 

Maybe from my wet feet. 

My rubber soles are full of holes, 
He knows about the leaks; 

Yet I wash away once a day, 
Clear on for several weeks. 

The young one is the meaner, 
To speak the truth outright, 

In stinginess and closeness; 
She J s seldom out of sight. 

I shall go in a little while, 

The girls may do as they please; 

I am going to study the science, 
And then I shall be at ease. 




THOMAS RECEIVING THE DEGREE AS M. D.. 

From the Eclectic College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
Indianapolis, Ind., March 24, 1892. 



Back to Refinement Again 61 

After I became a full-fledged "M. D." I 
left Indianapolis for Springfield, Ohio, April 5, 

1892, and started in the practice of medicine and 
surgery for the first time on my own responsi- 
bility, full of theory and vigor. On August 3, 

1893, I was married to Miss Hattie B. Taylor, 
of Cynthiana, Ky., one of the best women that 
ever lived. Nine times out of ten if I follow 
her advice I will come out all right; and when 
I do n't I always come out all wrong. 

The same year of my marriage I was com- 
missioned by ex-President William McKinley, 
Jr., who was then Ohio's honored Governor, As- 
sistant Surgeon of the Ninth Battalion Infan- 
try, Ohio National Guard. This position car- 
ried with it the rank of Captain. That year we 
camped at Newark, Ohio, and on our return I 
made the following report: 

Springfield, Ohio, Sept. 8, 1893. 

Major Scott Martin, Commanding Ninth Bat- 
talion Infantry, O. N. G., Springfield, Ohio. 
Sir: I have the honor and pleasure to make 
the following report of the sanitary condition 
and surroundings of the Ninth Battalion Inf an- 



62 What Experience Has Taught Me 

try, O. N. G., during its encampment at New- 
ark, the State of Ohio, County of Licking, from 
August 24th to 29th, inclusive. The camp was 
situated in and behind a beautiful range of 
mounds, which were prepared by the Mound 
Builders, thus making a substantial fortification. 
The health of the Battalion was very good, with 
exception of a few cases of cholera morbus. The 
provisions made for the medical department 
were very good, and special commendation is due 
to the Quartermaster for his efficient work. We 
lack a hospital corps. Some of the best, purest, 
and coolest water in the country is found on 
these camp grounds. The camp grounds are 
somewhat elevated, thus affording a very good 
opportunity for drainage. The camp was illu- 
minated by electric lights, thus reminding one 
of being in a city. In closing, I desire to say 
that I feel greatly under obligations to Major 
Scott Martin, Commander of the Battalion, for 
the kindness and interest shown by him to the 
Battalion in general. 

Thomas Wm. Burton, 
Surgeon Ninth Battalion Infantry, O. N. G. 

Being connected with the soldier boys dur- 
ing the time Spain governed the Island of Cuba, 



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Back to Refinement Again 63 

the last time with her iron and blood-stained 
hand, and after she had declared war with the 
United States, filled me greatly with the war 
spirit. A little while after the landing of Gen- 
eral Antonio Maceo from Costa Rica, where he 
was then living, and against the wishes of the 
Spaniards, a fierce fight followed, in which sev- 
eral Cubans were killed. For some time after- 
wards the Cubans could not get any surgeons, 
nothing but nurses, especially for General An- 
tonio Maceo. They advertised for physicians 
and surgeons. I fancied that I would appreci- 
ate being General Antonio Maceo's surgeon, but 
another was the successful one. About the mid- 
dle of June, 1896, when the Spanish- American 
War was at its hottest, about fifty fearless 
young men came to me to be examined for the 
purpose of mustering into a company which I 
had already organized in part, for it was our 
intention to make up a regiment, and we suc- 
ceeded by the last of the month and sent the fol- 
lowing letter to the Adjutant General for ad- 
mittance : 



64 What Experience Has Taught Me 

Springfield, Ohio, July 1, 1896. 

Adjutant General of Ohio Aocline, 

Columbus,, Ohio. 

Honoeable Sir: We the citizens of Spring- 
field, County of Clarke, State of Ohio, do re- 
spectfully petition to you, as a body of organized 
men, full of enthusiasm and patriotism, that we 
may be admitted in the service of the State of 
Ohio as the State Militia for the term of five 
years, unless sooner discharged in accordance 
with the Militia laws; that we may defend her 
borders and repel or prevent invasion ; to prevent 
and suppress riots and insurrections ; to maintain 
the honor and integrity of our State; and that 
we will diligently strive to attain the greatest 
practical correctness and efficiency in drill and 
discipline, and that we will perform our duties 
faithfully. 

Respectfully yours, submitted, 

Thomas W. Burton, M. D., 

Captain Commanding. 




PROFESSOR E. W. CURRY, 

The Negro Orator and Educator, Founder and President 

of the Curry School, Urbana, Ohio. 



First Negro Medical Society in Ohio 



CHAPTER VI 

FIRST NEGRO MEDICAL SOCIETY 

IN OHIO 

In the year 1897, seeing the need of a State 
medical society composed of Negro physicians, 
my friend and colleague, Dr. H. R. Hawkins, of 
Xenia, Ohio, and I discussed the idea of such 
an organization and issued a call to all Negro 
physicians and surgeons in the State to meet in 
Xenia, Ohio, August 27, 1897. After the or- 
ganization was perfected we named it the "Ohio 
Mutual Medical Association." I was chosen as 
its chairman for the ensuing year, and after I 
had been fully installed into office I delivered the 
following address in response to the address of 
welcome, to-wit: 

"The Light is Just Ahead of Us." 

In behalf of the medical profession of Ohio 
and these gentlemen here assembled on this 
unique occasion, I will make an attempt to re- 

67 



68 What Experience Has Taught Me 

spond to the address of welcome. This assem- 
blage is certainly unique because here are gen- 
tlemen of the medical profession who belong to 
the different schools, have left their respective 
fields of labor from east, west, north, and south 
throughout the State of Ohio, and have come to- 
gether in one combined force for the betterment 
of their work, morally, socially, and intellec- 
tually. While it is a fact that the enactment 
of the State laws and the establishment of the 
State Board of Health and the Board of Med- 
ical Registration and Examination tends to in- 
duce higher medical education generally, yet it 
is necessary for the Negro doctor to organize, 
meet often, and learn, to control himself in this 
direction. 

Some may tell you that an organization of 
colored men in Ohio is not the proper thing, that 
the different medical societies in the counties and 
the State Medical Society will admit colored 
gentlemen of good standing in medicine, and 
that we are drawing the line on ourselves; but 
I fail to see it in that light, and will say to you 
that that is one of the reasons why the Negro 
is so far behind to-day, and because he is too 
dei)endent and not enough independent. 

Inasmuch as other medical societies of Ohio 



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First Negro Medical Society in Ohio 69 

will admit gentlemen of the profession in good 
standing among them, so will we; and there will 
be no line drawn unless an individual draws it 
on himself, and that we can not help. 

Negro physicians have organized State Med- 
ical Associations in six States of the South, as 
follows: the two Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, 
Texas, and Florida. What have we Northern 
brethren done along this line? It might have 
been bigotry and prejudice that kept the schools 
apart until now; but I venture to say, in behalf 
of the gentlemen present, that there is neither 
bigotry nor prejudice among them, and that they 
have come together for one common cause, and 
that is, to exchange their ideas in the advance- 
ment in science. 

The question arises, Will it ever be that med- 
icine will be one? So long as medicine exists, 
physicians will differ; but while that is true, it 
is not impossible for medicine to be one. The 
more I practice medicine the more I believe that 
the day is fast approaching; that is to say, it 
is possible for medical men to be united, with 
the privilege of according to every one liberty 
of opinion. 

As far as science is concerned, there is little 
opportunity to differ. The brighter the true 



70 What Experience Has Taught Me 

light of science shines, the further will bigotry 
and prejudice roll into oblivion. The walls of 
paper that stand between parties in medicine are 
being perforated and torn to pieces; yea, the 
debris will be blown away to the four winds of 
the earth. 

You will not give up your principles; you 
have a right to hold fast to them. Some men 
have suffered greatly for the faith that was in 
them. 

Rev. John G. Fee has been mobbed and tor- 
tured a score of times for the faith that is in 
him, yet he has liberty of conscience. He was 
driven from place to place, but there was an in- 
dwelling conviction and a satisfaction of right 
that could not be taken from him. 

The day is coming when we can join on the 
sciences, and when the differences of opinion on 
materia medica and therapeutics will be ac- 
counted for only as common differences amongst 
men, and when prejudice and intolerance will 
melt before the shining rays of science like snow- 
flakes before the scorching sun. 

Our practical progress must hinge upon a 
thorough knowledge of drugs, so as to raise the 
sinking constitution from the mire of disease, to 
give the slowing pendulum of life a little push, 



First Negro Medical Society in Ohio 71 

to spur the natural recuperative forces on to 
victory. 

We should not confine ourselves to text- 
book indication: we must use our own powers 
of reasoning and observation to give us the 
proper indications. The successful physician 
must be a free thinker and an earnest investi- 
gator. 

The facts explain the power of habit. The 
man who cultivates the best side of his nature 
finds it easy to do good, and hard to do evil; 
while he who cultivates his worst qualities finds 
it easy to do wrong, and hard to do right. 

The surgeon of the coming half century will 
apply his rays and take a photograph of the 
bones, and by the aid of the coming electric ap- 
paratus will examine the condition of the inter- 
nal organs and view the condition of the stomach 
and bowels as readily as he now views the pa- 
tient's tongue, throat, larynx, and the eyes. The 
deformities, position of fragments of bone in 
fractures, and dislocations, and all foreign 
bodies will be brought plainly to view. 

Missiles in gunshot wounds will be revealed 
to the eye, and the cruel, death-dealing probe will 
be relegated to the instrument case, and called 
forth only in minor cases or in the absence of 
the better apparatus. 



72 What 'Experience Has Taught Me 

The physician of to-day is not the physician 
of seventy-five years ago ; neither is he the physi- 
cian of seventy-five years hence. Some of you, 
perhaps, call to memory some of the modes of 
practice and customs of the first-named period of 
seventy-five years ago and have some knowledge 
of the previous seventy-five years. 

A large per cent of the physicians had com- 
paratively little more training than could be 
gathered from a few medical books written by 
the physicians of foreign lands, or perhaps a 
few months' reading in the office of some doctor 
who had obtained his education in the same way, 
or perhaps one term of lectures of sixteen weeks 
in a medical school. 

The higher medical education now required 
of physicians is working wonderful results, and 
we welcome any means that will help it along. 
It is a felicity we enjoy in common to be citi- 
zens of a country without a peer, under a polit- 
ical order whose unrivaled excellence excites the 
admiration and envy of the world. But no 
man should be placed in position to prescribe 
for the venerated patient whose education, ex- 
perience, and training have not in some degree 
qualified him to comprehend the nature of the 
maladies he is to treat, to distinguish the chronic 



First Negro Medical Society in Ohio 73 

diseases of the body politic from its passing in- 
flammation, the growing pains of a vigorous and 
lusty life from the violent distempers of an in- 
fected and decaying body. He should have that 
all-roundness of observation which comes from 
a knowledge of affairs and a touch of elbows 
with the people. He should not be content with 
holding right opinions, but should exert himself 
to make them prevalent. 

Your success in the practice of medicine must 
depend upon practical intellect, inexhaustible en- 
ergy, and invincible determination. Your labor 
must continue to be prodigious, your wisdom 
and tact equal to your industry. 

Successful men do not owe their elevation to 
accidents or tricks, but rather to their patience 
and persistent energy. The field of medicine 
grows prodigiously every year, so that to-day the 
strongest minds are unable to grasp the innu- 
merable scientific questions in medicine. 

Now, gentlemen, let us do all we can to pro- 
mote the method of curing disease and to in- 
struct those less consistent in practice than our- 
selves. We should be thoroughly honest in our 
convictions, making no effort to appear what 
we are not. Never be influenced by any but the 
most upright and conscientious motives. 



74 What Experience Has Taught Me 

Let us do the best we can on all occasions, 
conscientiously discharge our duties, and be ever 
in search of new facts that may benefit our pa- 
tients. Much of our success will depend on our 
personal qualities ; and intelligent brain, kind na- 
ture, sympathetic heart, and skilled hand must 
be united. A man who can enter a sickroom and 
diffuse about him a sense of repose and confi- 
dence is certain of increasing his practice rap- 
idly. 

Association Re-established. 

After existing about two years the Associa- 
tion became defunct, for the lack of interest 
taken by its members. Negro physicians and 
surgeons at that time in the State of Ohio were 
scarce, and the most of them belonged to white 
associations and thought it useless to belong to 
two societies of the same kind ; hence it was hard 
to get them to see the need of their own. 

In the meantime I connected myself with the 
National Medical Association and was made 
Vice-President of Ohio from that grand body 
which met in Lexington, Ky., in 1904. It was 
the duty of the Vice-President from each State 
to organize his or her State in which they lived, 
and center them into the National. 



First Negro Medical Society in Ohio 75 

The National Medical Association is com- 
posed of all physicians, dentists, and pharmacists 
who are graduates of reputable schools, who have 
met the requirements of their State Boards, and 
are in good standing in their local organizations. 

The winter of 1905 I issued another call to 
all Negro physicians, dentists, and pharmacists 
in Ohio (finding sixty-five) to assemble in Sprin- 
field the second Tuesday in May for the purpose 
of organizing a medical society composed of the 
above-named branches. Six doctors, together 
with one dentist, came. We organized. I was 
elected its President, and we held sessions for 
two days, which were very interesting, I assure. 
During our session I made the following ad- 
dress : 

"SCIENCE DIFFERS BUT LITTLE." 

Doctors, Ladies, and Gentlemen: I con- 
gratulate you on coming here. Your leaving 
your fields of labor and gathering here upon this 
occasion at this hour means a step forward in 
the advancement of medical science in this our 
beloved State. 

If we form only a nucleus in the way of a 



76 What Experience Has Taught Me 

State Association, and keep it nurtured for one 
year, we shall have a foundation on which to 
build one of the best organizations of its kind. 

You need not fear nor be dismayed, for you 
have among you the material with which to work. 
In ability you are second to none. In experi- 
ence you have shown yourselves equal to every 
emergency, and in integrity you have proved 
yourselves a credit to the community in which 
you live. 

To be a successful practitioner one must at- 
tend State and National Associations, as well as 
peruse his journals. If any one fails to do this, 
it will be but a question of time till he is rele- 
gated to the rear, to a place where he is best 
fitted. 

People of to-day do not dwell upon the 
school so much as they do upon the individual. 
I do not agree with Dr. Vale Osier, who is a Ca- 
nadian by birth and an American only by adop- 
tion, when he says that "nothing in the world is 
accomplished by a man more than forty years 
old," and that "men of sixty should be retired or 
chloroformed," and that "American medical col- 
leges are teaching hybrid systems of medicine 
and producing ignorant practitioners," and that 
"Europe is far ahead of the United States in 




DR. H. R. HAWKINS, 

Xenia, Ohio. 

Post Graduate, Hahneman College, Philadelphia, Pa. 



First Negro Medical Society in Ohio 77 

medical universities." Evidently greater strides 
in medicine and surgery have been made in 
America in the last forty years than in Europe, 
and by this we mean American medicine in gen- 
eral. 

In my opinion a man is at his best at forty; 
but we, as Negro physicians, dentists, and drug- 
gists, will have to outlive a mountain of obstacles 
and impediments. A third of the patients we 
chance to get employ us on probation or for con- 
venience, and we are not kept very long before 
we are discharged and one of the opposite race 
takes our place and holds the patients, though 
the time may be long or short. Therefore he 
gets both money and credit. It has been my ex- 
perience, whenever these changes take place I am 
not aware of it until the thing has been done. 
How shall our patients be taught to place con- 
fidence in us as practitioners? How shall they 
be taught to realize that you are a master of 
your situation? I find that human nature is the 
same all along the line of time. As far back as 
29 A. D., when Christ was performing so many 
miracles before the eyes of the people, and even 
while He was passing along in one of His walks, 
perhaps on His way to Mount Olivet, where He 
frequently went for a time of quiet meditation, 



78 What Experience Has Taught Me 

He saw a blind man sitting by the roadside and 
had compassion on him, touched his eyes, and 
thus restored his sight. And yet, on account of 
this antipathy they had for Him, they had no 
confidence in Christ; but He left this great les- 
son for us, "I must work the works of Him that 
sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh, when 
no man can work." So, whatever may be said 
and done about us, we should strive to do our 
duty along the line of our profession. 

It is not at all times we treat a patient the 
way the patient or his friends think we ought to 
treat them; but if the doctor knows that he is 
right in his diagnosis and treatment, he should 
stick to his tactics or quit the case. It will be bet- 
ter to stop in time than to be sued for malprac- 
tice. 

There was a time before we could stand 
alone, when it was necessary to have some out- 
sider see to it that we did our work well. 

The physician of to-day is not the physician 
of forty years ago, neither is he the physician of 
forty years hence. As far as science is con- 
cerned, there is little opportunity to differ. The 
brighter the true light of science shines, the far- 
ther will bigotry and prejudice roll into oblivion. 
The walls of paper that stand between parties 



First Negro Medical Society in Ohio 79 

in medicine are being perforated and torn to 
pieces ; yea, the debris will be blown away to the 
four winds of the earth. 

The day is coming when we can join on the 
sciences, and when the differences of opinion on 
materia medica and therapeutics will be ac- 
counted only as common differences amongst 
men, and when prejudice and intolerance will 
melt before the shining rays of science like snow- 
flakes before the scorching sun. Our practical 
progress must hinge upon a thorough knowledge 
of drugs, so as to raise the sinking constitution 
from the mire of disease to give the slowing pen- 
dulum of life a little push, to spur the natural 
recuperative forces on to victory. 

At the second meeting, in May, 1906, which" 
was held in Columbus, we were very much en- 
couraged on account of the increased member- 
ship and the interest shown in our Association. 
At the close of the second day's session I was 
again elected the President for the ensuing year. 

May, 1907, we met in Cincinnati. At this 
meeting some of the best representatives in the 
professions of medicine, dentistry, and phar- 
macy were present, became members, and took 



80 What Experience Has Taught Me 

active part in discussing the problems of their 
peculiar work, which were of great interest to 
all present. At the close of the last day's session 
the physicians of Cincinnati banqueted us at the 
Douglass Hotel. We sat down at the table at 
ten P. M., and got up at three next morning. 
We had a delightful time, I assure you. At 
the session Dr. Frank W. Johnson, of Cincin- 
nati, was elected President for the ensuing year. 

The fourth session was held in Dayton, Ohio, 
May, 1908, which was the best one of them all. 
There they elected Dr. William J. Woodlin, of 
Columbus, to the chair of President. 

The Association will hold its next session in 
Xenia and Wilberf orce the second week in June, 
1909. 

I am thankful to see that my work has not 
been spent in vain along this line, and I feel 
sure that the interest and confidence will become 
more established at each session. 




Thomas reducing a dislocated arm by making an extension 
and counter-extension movements. 



Member of Faculty, Curry Institute 



6 



CHAPTER VII 

MEMBER OF FACULTY, CURRY 
INSTITUTE 

It was during the year 1896 that I was 
elected as a member of the Faculty of the Curry 
Institute, which was then located in Mechanics- 
burg, Ohio, but is now in Urbana, Ohio. I have 
been connected with the institute in some way 
ever since. 

Professor E. W. B. Curry, its founder, de- 
serves great credit for his energetic manner and 
courage. I took great delight in helping Pro- 
fessor Curry because he was a young man and 
had the courage to manipulate such an undertak- 
ing, and has fostered his plans to the credit of 
himself and all those who have seen fit to aid 
him; and to-day he is doing a great work in Ur- 
bana along educational lines. 

When I was first connected with that insti- 
tution I was elected to the chair of Physiology. 

83 



84 What Experience Has Taught Me 

A great many people, of course, criticised the 
school because its President was so young and 
because there were so few students, and many 
other things were said then that would not be 
said now. One person criticised the professor 
and his school to me to such an extent that these 
verses came to me: 

CEASE NOT. 

Cease not to strive because you are poor, 

Cease not to do the right; 
Press bravely to the upward mark 

With vigor, main, and might. 

Antagonized you will be on every hand 
On account of your wit and zeal; 

The influence of your mighty power 
Forever make them feel. 

The work, the work, we ought to do 

In this our native land, 
Where intelligence seems most bright 

Of all the place for man. 

Each one of us must play our part, 

In spite of what they say; 
Play it in the way we think it best, 

Play it in our own way. 



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Member of Faculty, Curry Institute 85 

The young ambitious Negro boy 

Is held as though by a rope; 
He struggles hard to reach the goal 

Built upon nothing but hope. 

The work you do may seem very small 
To those who are not of a part; 

But you are molding character, 

Considering from whence you start. 

Before entering upon my work there I gave 
the students a talk in a general way, of which 
the following is a part: 

"Young Men, Be Strong." 
Our life is a warfare; our days are but few; 
our pathway is so obstructed by prejudice and 
ocstracism that it will take none but the strong 
to safely reach the goal. It is true that young 
men must have encouragement in order to aid 
them in the great life-struggle. 

They must be taught by kind influence and 
deeds, and not governed so much by the rod of 
iron. They must be coaxed, and not driven. 

Young men are like children, in that they are 
great imitators. If the majority of old men 



86 What Experience Has Taught Me 

who are refined and cultured would set better ex- 
amples and lead better lives themselves, I am 
sure the majority of young men would imitate 
them. How encouraging are those words from 
the First Epistle of John, "I have written unto 
you, young men, because ye are strong!" They 
were strong because they had kept the faith and 
overcome the wicked ones. 

If those who are so wrapped up in faith and 
righteousness are to have such encouraging 
words, how much more ought those who are so 
unfortunate as to be deprived of those golden 
opportunities ! 

Now, young men, be strong! even if the 
world hate you, for God is no respecter of per- 
sons. Paul, in his letter to First Timothy, says, 
"For the love of money is the root of all evil." 
That does not mean because you are young you 
are to throw away your money or spend it fool- 
ishly, but to be very greedy in self -gain, that 
"he troubleth his own house." Prov. 15 : 27. 

You will find, too, that it takes money to 
help make you strong in the great warfare of 
life as well as in good behavior and education. 



IM^g^l:,^ !il;f 




WZ&>^. 



Thomas reading a paper before the Ohio State Eclectic 

Medical Association, Put-in-Bay, Ohio, July, _9C2. 

Thomas the only colored member. 



Member of Faculty, Curry Institute 87 

How well one is recognized when he has money ! 
and how much despised when he has none! "A 
good man leaveth an inheritance to his children." 
Prov. 13: 22. "But he that loveth pleasure shall 
be a poor man; he that loveth wine and oil shall 
not be rich." Prov. 21 : 17. 

As you grow older and venture into business 
for yourselves, you will find to your surprise that 
your troubles have just begun. Those whom you 
took to be your friends will also treat you coolly 
and say discouraging things concerning your en- 
terprise, and your qualifications and fitness for 
running such a business. 

As a matter of course they will stand you off 
for some of your goods and go elsewhere and 
pay cash, at the same time expecting just as 
much from you as from the man who received 
the cash. I think we ought to study the young 
men more. No one can be a successful teacher 
until he first learns his pupils, for no two have 
the same disposition. After we have learned 
them as we should, then put each one upon his 
merit and worth, and push him from one good 
thing to another. 



88 What Experience Has Taught Me 

During the year 1897 I had the pleasure of 
writing a few articles for the Eclectic Medical 
Journal, printed monthly at Cincinnati, Ohio. 
I received a very complimentary letter from the 
editor concerning one of them, which was writ- 
ten about an "Anencephalous Monster," as fol- 
lows: 

Cincinnati, Ohio, April 26, 1897. 

T. W. Burton, M. D. 

Dear Doctor: The Academy of Medicine, 
Paris, France, has noticed your article in our 
Journal, which is a very high honor, indeed, to 
you, and also to our Journal. They beg of us 
that we send them three photographs of the spec- 
imen, from which they can make suitable cuts 
or possibly plaster casts for their museum. 

I think it would be greatly to your interest 
if you would mail me the three photos which 
were especially made for the Helleburgh Com- 
pany, who make the cuts for us. 

In regard to the third little electro, we were 
under the impression that you would have no 
use for it, and we kept it, as it would probably 
do for publication for some book in the future. 

Please let us hear from you. 
Respect fully, 

J. K. Scudder, M. D. 



Member of Faculty, Curry Institute 89 

Since I have been in the practice of medicine 
and surgery I have had the pleasure of perform- 
ing both minor and major operations. While I 
like to operate, I am not an alarmist. I find 
it is good surgery to save all you can. A piece 
of a finger is better than an artificial one. The 
surgeon should give the fullest amount of en- 
couragement to his nervous and timid patients. 
The surgeon must be master of his situation, not 
excitable, and go about his several duties in a 
quiet and dignified manner. 

Sometimes developments of unexpected com- 
plications arise during the time of the operation. 
If these occur, the surgeon should not lose his 
head. 

The practice of medicine is a peculiar thing. 
A patient will get well quicker if he has the 
physician he desires to treat him. I believe every 
one ought to have whom he wants to treat him; 
but very often the friends of the patient or an 
enemy of the attending physician will, during 
the absence of the doctor in charge, call in an- 
other physician, and the change perhaps will do 
that patient harm. And the nerson who will 



90 What Experience Has Taught Me 

do that should not be trusted any more than a 
thief in the night. Such a change often gives 
the attending physician a bad name. The dura- 
tion of certain diseases is regulated by fixed 
laws. They will not end until after the lapse 
of a certain number of days, and hardly ever ex- 
ceed this period. 

Some people will get well simply by sugges- 
tion ; that is, by telling them to do certain things ; 
and the patient believing what you say is true, 
will get well. It seems strange, but it is never- 
theless a fact, the American people like to be 
humbugged. 

If you tell some people the truth, and tell 
them for their own good, they will not believe 
you, simply because you do n't look to suit their 
fancy. 

I have often thought, and think now, that 
the devil will get more people on account of 
prejudice and ostracism which they carry with 
them daily than any or all the sins they commit. 

Irreverence can show itself in many ways. 
Pride and self-interest must give way to great 
principles. Inasmuch as each one has his or her 




DR. WILLIAM CHAVIS, 
Dr. Thomas W. Burton's preceptor. 



M ember of Faculty, Curry Institute 91 

work h\the world, they should be encouraged to 
do it. It is not always easy to do right, I admit; 
but to whom much is entrusted, from him much 
is expected. But man lights up the night, that 
he may lengthen day in his effort to secure that 
which he does not need, and murders to gain it. 
He slays reg-ardless of his demands, and con- 
sumes regardless of his needs. All for money 
and self. 



Sent as a Delegate to National Negro 
Business League 



CHAPTER VIII 

SENT AS A DELEGATE TO NA- 
TIONAL NEGRO BUSINESS LEAGUE 

The local Business League in Springfield 
felt it their duty to send a delegate to the Na- 
tional Negro Business League, which met in the 
city of Chicago, 111., in 1901, and the honor fell 
upon me to represent them and to bring back a 
true report of the proceedings of that session, 
which I did as follows: 

SECOND ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NATIONAL NEGRO 

BUSINESS LEAGUE IN HANDEL HALL, 

46-48 RANDOLPH STREET. 

Chicago, III., August 21-23, 1901. 
At ten o'clock, A. M., August 21st, the meet- 
ing was called to order by A. W. F. Taylor, 
President of a local League in Chicago. Invo- 
cation by Rev. Dr. J. W. E. Bowen, of Ala- 
bama. After which an address of welcome on 
behalf of the State by a member of the Gover- 
nor's staff was delivered; this address was short, 



but interesting. 



95 



96 What Experience Has Taught Me 

The Governor, Richard Yates, was not in the 
State. 

An address of welcome on behalf of the city 
of Chicago was to have been delivered by the 
Mayor of this city, Hon. Carter H. Harrison, 
and he, too, was out of the city, and a member 
of his staff kindly consented to address us. His 
talk was interesting in regard to the progress 
the Negro is making. He said that it took the 
Anglo-Saxon race four hundred years to ac- 
complish what the Negro has in the short period 
of time he has been free. He said that he was 
a Democrat, but not one of those Benjamin Till- 
man kind. He scored Mr. Tillman for his recent 
action, and remarks on lynching. 

Booker T. Washington was next introduced, 
but could not be heard for a long time on account 
of the prolonged applause. After a time he 
said: "Ladies and Gentlemen, — This is not a 
meeting of oratory and speech-making, but a 
meeting of workers. Our watchword and motto 
should be, 'Forward, March!' " He pointed to 
the place of the first meeting, in Boston, last 
year, with pride, because it was the place where 
the Negro first shed his blood for freedom. 
Then he spoke in the highest terms of Illinois, 
the place of the second meeting, the home of the 



Delegate to National Business League 97 

great emancipator. "Again, all through the last 
year's session order was so harmonious that not 
a man raised to the point of order. It is what 
we do that makes us men and women, and what 
we do n't do. There is no place like the South, 
with all its ups and downs, which affords the 
Negro such excellent opportunities. The Negro 
should begin at the bottom and go up." 

It was said by one during the session that 
Washington had the same control over those men 
and women that brain had over matter. He 
could handle them so very easily. 

Giles B. Jackson, Esq., of Richmond, Va., 
gave an account of the Business League in Vir- 
ginia with the remarks, "We may be held back, 
but not kept back." He said that the organiza- 
tion had such an influence in Virginia that it 
caused business men to respect them perhaps 
where they would not otherwise. 

Rev. W. L. Taylor, Richmond, Va., had a 
very interesting paper on "Business Features of 
the Order of True Reformers," an organization 
that takes in children from three to fourteen 
years old. This organization was started in 1885 
and has since banked seven million dollars. Dur- 
ing Cleveland's last administration the white 
banks failed to cash an order for fifty dollars. 



98 What Experience Has Taught Me 

The School Board was in need of seventeen thou- 
sand dollars. They telephoned to the Negro 
bank to see if they could get the required 
amount. The answer was that "y ou can get one 
hundred thousand dollars." They telephoned 
again, thinking that maybe the black boys were 
mistaken. They got the same answer; so they 
came to the Negro bank and found it so busy 
that they had to wait some time before they 
could wait on them. The Board presented their 
check, and was waited upon so quickly they 
were so struck that they could not leave for some 
time, watching the black boys do business. 

This bank or company has a number of build- 
ings and newspaper plants, a mercantile depart- 
ment which brings in nineteen thousand dollars 
per year, and an old folks' department worth 
fourteen thousand dollars (a farm). In each 
department of this bank their books must show 
that he or she is all right, and not his or her ap- 
pearance. They have a chief over all, and a 
man who is called "accountant." These two 
men must agree, or else something is wrong. 
This bank does nineteen thousand dollars' worth 
of business per week. The Board of Directors 
of the bank is not satisfied with this; they make 
the cashier get all the money to correspond with 



Delegate to National Business League 99 

all of these books and lay it on the table every 
Saturday and show to those present. 

Mr. Taylor says that we are too ready to 
criticise one another in business. He then called 
his private secretary to stand up, who is just a 
boy of nineteen years and as black as the derby 
hat he wore. Mr. Taylor says, "Do you think 
that there is any white blood in that boy?" 

Mr. J. A. Wilson, of Kansas City, Mo., 
spoke of what the Twin City Business Associa- 
tion is accomplishing; he spoke of the progress 
and various kinds of businesses the Negro is do- 
ing in that city. 

Theodore W. Jones, of Chicago, 111., had a 
paper entitled "Can the Negro Succeed as a 
Business Man?" In every vocation of life the 
Negro needs more grit and backbone, although 
he has come from the slave cabin to the profes- 
sor's chair. The Negro must quit stumbling 
over impediments of his own and go forward. 

Evening Session, 8 P. M. 
" The Negro Woman's Business Club of Chi- 
cago, and its achievements, was spoken of by 
Mrs. Alberta M. Smith, of Chicago, 111. The 
club was organized in 1892 for social, political, 
and industrial purposes. Membership at pres- 
ent numbering 14,015; worth, $3,000. 



100 What Experience Has Taught Me 

They have an Old Folks' Home connected 
with it. The typewriting alone cost one hundred 
dollars per month. She insisted on us all to be 
natural and not put on so as to pretend we are 
more than we really are. 

Mr. Corbin, of Arkansas, spoke of the 
wealth of the Negro there and in the South. He 
said that one Mr. Wiley Jones was the richest 
man there, his wealth being estimated at one 
hundred million dollars. About the time Mr. 
Corbin finished reading his paper Mr. Washing- 
ton received a telegram from President McKin- 
ley, congratulating him and the League. It was 
stated by Mr. Washington that those who wish 
to become lifelong members of the League could 
do so by paying twenty-five dollars. There 
were several who did so. Also several of the 
white people joined as lifelong members. 

Judge Gibbs, of Little Rock, Ark., who is 
an ex- judge of Madagascar, spoke of his start 
in life and travels, to the present. He spoke of 
going on the postmaster's bond in Little Rock, 
who is a white man, for forty thousand dollars. 
He said, "When you are going into business and 
fail, again try; if you fail again, try, try; if you 
fail again, try, try, try!" 

Mr. Charles Banks, of Clarksdale, Miss., 



Delegate to National Business League 101 

gave us a talk on the merchandising. He dwelt 
to a great extent as to how goods should be 
bought and sold, and our places of business 
properly kept. He has increased in wealth 
enough from his trade as a merchant for his 
taxes to amount to three hundred dollars per 
year. 

William Oscar Murphy, of Atlanta, Ga., 
had a paper on "The Grocery Business." He 
said that he was born a grocer because his father 
was keeping a grocery when he was born, and 
to-day he has property worth thirty-five thou- 
sand dollars, all unincumbered. 

A. N. Johnson, of Mobile, Ala., who is a 
druggist, editor of a weekly newspaper, and an 
undertaker, gave us an interesting talk on Ne- 
gro business enterprises of Mobile. Out of 
thirty-six clerks in the postofnce in Mobile, 
twenty-eight of them are Negroes. One Negro 
named Mr. Peters, by the way, who was present 
at the meeting, owns forty-eight houses and lots 
in Mobile, Ala. The rating of business done by 
Negroes in Mobile in the various businesses 
ranges from eight dollars to seventy-five dollars 
per day. One Negro in the furniture business 
has an income of one hundred dollars per day. 



102 What Experience Has Taught Me 

Thursday Morning, 10 O'Clock. 

Prayer by Rev. Dr. Morse, of Arkansas. 
The doctor is also a business man, and has been 
for twenty-five years. He is in the dry goods 
business. In a town of three thousand inhabit- 
ants the Negroes are in forty-three different 
kinds of business, and ask for a reasonable por- 
tion of business, not all. Reverses, he said, come 
to all races. So when they fail, they should try 
again. 

Dr. Willis S. Stems gave us a talk on the 
drug business. The doctor is located in Decatur, 
Ala. He said that there is in the State of Ala- 
bama an association composed of doctors of 
medicine, doctors of dental surgery, and doctors 
of pharmacy, of which he is President. The 
members of this association all own their homes 
except three. 

Mr. Russell, of St. Louis, Mo., gave us an 
interesting talk on the undertaking business. 
He started in business in 1894 in the rear of an 
old stable, with one horse and a spring wagon. 
Not one of the other undertakers nor stables 
would hire to him at twenty-five dollars per day, 
and to-day his income annually, from funerals 
alone, amounts to over twenty-five thousand dol- 
lars. Since he became an undertaker he has ed- 



Delegate to National Business League 103 

ucated two of his sisters ; one of them clerks for 
him in the undertaking establishment, and the 
other clerks in a grocery, also owned by him. 

Mr. G. E. Jones, of Little Rock, Ark., who 
owns and conducts an undertaking establish- 
ment, a livery stable, tailor shop, and a drug- 
store, and also a business block known as the 
Jones Block, all of which are paid for, said it 
really seemed for a while that no race had any 
money and carried on any business but the 
Negro. 

The colored business women of the East were 
well represented by Mrs. Dora A. Miller, Brook- 
lyn, N. Y. Mrs. Miller stated that they have 
a club, the membership of which numbers sev- 
enty-five women. Every member of this club 
was in business for herself ; such as regalia-mak- 
ing, grocery-keeping, bakeries, hand-painting, 
dye houses, ladies' exchange, chiropodist, and so 
on. The ladies' exchange, she said, found many 
a home for girls who could not find work them- 
selves. 

A Mrs. Lewis, of Springfield, 111., told of 
her start in the hair-dressing business twenty-six 
years ago on fifty dollars, and has saved thirty- 
six thousand dollars and taught others the trade. 

Mr. Gilbert C. Harris, of Boston, Mass., also 



104 What Experience Has Taught Me 

a wigmaker and hair-dresser, carried a capital 
stock of ten thousand dollars in the hair business, 
all of which is his. 

Walter P. Hall, of Philadelphia, Pa., had a 
paper on the "Game and Poultry Business." 
This business brought him a yearly income of 
fifty to seventy-five thousand dollars. 

Mrs. Emma L. Pitts, of Macon, Ga., told 
us the way she started in the millinery and dress- 
making business. She said that her husband 
died, leaving her without money, and her health 
would not allow her to take in washing; so, in 
order to help several girls who were idle, she 
started in the business on nothing, and to-day 
she employs one hundred girls. She spoke of 
wanting to raise money enough to put into her 
place of business more machinery. So very ex- 
cellent was her paper, as soon as she had taken 
her seat, one Mr. Martin Ferguson, of Jackson- 
ville, Fla., arose with a fiery speech and, holding 
up a five-dollar bill, said that there ought to be 
thirty men in the house who would give five dol- 
lars to a woman who had the courage to come 
all the way from Georgia to tell us what she 
was doing there. Mr. Booker T. Washington 
and two other men gave five dollars for said 
purpose. 



Delegate to National Business League 105 

There was no night session Thursday even- 
ing, but instead there was a banquet tendered 
the officers and delegates at First Regiment Ar- 
mory, at Sixteenth and Michigan Boulevard. 
Mr. Washington was the center of attraction. 
Twenty-five thousand people were present. 
After the speaking the platform was removed 
and one thousand took part in dancing at one 
time. It was one of the prettiest sights I wit- 
nessed while in Chicago. It impressed Mr. 
Washington so much that he spoke of it at the 
next day's session. 

We were also highly entertained by another 
club, known as the Appomattox, at its parlors, 
No. 3144 Wabash Avenue. 

Friday Morning, 10 O'Clock. 

Fred D. Patterson, Greenfield, Ohio, gave 
an interesting talk on the carriage manufactur- 
ing. He said that a college education had noth- 
ing to do with making a successful business man. 
Often he thought his father was wrong, but 
every time it was he who was wrong, and his 
father was right. He finds, in carriage making, 
it takes a man of common sense, push, and 
hustle. 

Mr. Martin Ferguson, of Jacksonville, Fla., 



106 What Experience Has Taught Me 

told of his experience as an ice dealer and in the 
livery stable business. He started on nothing, 
but now owns both of these places of business. 

A. M. Boyd, of Nashville, Tenn., told how 
he started about fifteen years ago with two pen- 
cils and paper, and to-day he has one of the 
largest printing establishments in the South. 
He employs 125 men and women. 

The election of officers then followed. 

Mr. Fairweather, of Newport, R. I., a black- 
smith; forty years' experience. Out of sixty- 
five horses shod by him, about fifteen belong to 
Negroes. He said that the Negro North has 
not been educated up to patronize one another 
as yet. He said that most any blacksmith can 
put a shoe on a horse; but when it comes to the 
scientific part of shoeing, very few can do that. 
When it comes to fast trotting horses, to keep 
them from forging and interfering, it is more 
than a notion to stop them. 

Mr. J. C. Napier, of Nashville, Tenn., gave 
an interesting talk on real estate. He said that 
prejudice in the South proved an advantage to 
the Negro rather than a hindrance. 

C. H. Smiley, of Chicago, 111., gave us an 
interesting talk on catering. He said that he 
started waiting table in 1890, with fifty cents. 



Delegate to National Business League 107 

He waited on a lady who soon took a trip East, 
and when she came back she made the assertion 
that there was only one man in Chicago who 
could serve a party, and that was a black man 
by the name of C. H. Smiley. From that his 
fame started. He spoke of his linen, among 
other things. He has napkins from two dollars 
per dozen to fifteen dollars a piece; tablecloths 
from five dollars a piece to eight hundred dollars 
a piece. His wealth is now estimated at two 
hundred thousand dollars. I had the pleasure of 
visiting his place of business. 

Mr. John S. Trainer, of Philadelphia, Pa., 
said that he would rather his son be in business 
for himself than to hold a government position. 

Friday afternoon Mr. Armour chartered a 
train pulling coaches and took all of us dele- 
gates, even women and children, free of charge, 
to his slaughterhouses and stockyards. It was 
the most interesting sight of anything I saw 
while in Chicago. They kill ten thousand hogs 
a day in that one plant alone; 2,044 head of cat- 
tle a day. The stockyards of Chicago are as 
large as Springfield. 

At last we came to the evening session. 

One Mr. Clifford, of West Virginia, told the 
League that where he lived land can be bought 



108 What Experience Has Taught Me 

for fifty to seventy-five cents per acre, and that 
there is enough timber on top, and coal in the 
ground, to last seventy-five years. He urged the 
League to buy it. 

Mr. T. Thomas Fortune, editor of the New 
York Age, of New York, gave us an interesting 
talk on "The Logic of Business Development." 

Isaiah T. Montgomery, of Mound Bayou, 
Miss., gave an account of a Negro city there, 
owned and controlled by Negroes. 

Rev. S. L. Davis, of Hobson City, Ala., who 
is also the Mayor of that city, told us about the 
founding of the Negro city. 

The Rev. J. W. E. Bowen, of Alabama, 
closed with a stirring and forcible address. The 
session closed to meet in Richmond, Va., next 
year. 

Yours, respectfully submitted, 

Thomas W. Burton, M. D. 

Springfield, Ohio. 



As a Christian Worker 



CHAPTER IX 
AS A CHRISTIAN WORKER 

Certainly we are to profit by reading the 
acts of others, whether they are right or wrong, 
good or bad. History may be defined as a divine 
institution which was intended by our Maker to 
assist in the progress of developing man. 

Very often by reading the acts of others has 
come a warning to me; their footprints seen in 
the history which indicate their fate tell me that 
a like fate may befall me should the precedents 
be disregarded; and as near as I can I try to 
follow that infallible rule, that is: Do unto 
others as I would have them do unto me. 

One of the greatest pleasures of my life is 
Sunday-school work. Although a busy medical 
practitioner, unless there is something very urg- 
ent, I must spend the Sunday-school hour with 
the children and young folks. It is the duty 

of every Christian to study the Book of books, 

m 



112 What Experience Has Taught Me 

which is the Holy Bible. By familiarizing our- 
selves with this book, by studying it daily — 
which one will have to do in order to become fa- 
miliar with it — then we will depend more upon 
God when there comes a succession of falls, 
fountain of tears, upward struggles and debased 
and bleeding heart, and not tell our troubles to 
man. Man may mean all right, but he has an- 
other friend, to whom he will divulge your se- 
crets, and yet at the same time he is supposed 
to be in sympathy with you. When you find 
yourself deceived you will think of the words 
of the Psalmist David when he complaineth of 
his enemies' treachery: "Yea, mine own familiar 
friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my 
bread, hath lifted up his heel against me. But 
then, O Lord, be merciful unto me and raise 
me up, that I may requite them." (Psalm 41: 
9, 10.) 

I find, if we live as God would like to have 
us live, when the storms of vexations, disap- 
pointments, and besetments overtake us, if we 
turn to this blessed Book we will find consola- 
tion, as did the children of Israel when assured 



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As a Christian Worker 113 

by Moses, while being pursued by the Egyp- 
tians, if they stand still they will see the salva- 
tion of the Lord manifested. (Ex. 14:13.) 
And while we thus divest ourselves of all intel- 
lectual pride and enter into the realm of wisdom 
we can truly say, with assurance, "Her ways are 
ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are 
peace." (Prov. 3: 17.) 

It takes men and women of moral courage 
to accomplish these things. All honor to our 
great and good women, who are doing so very 
much for our young people as well as our older 
ones. We have so many good women who are 
well informed and could do a great deal for the 
uplifting of our young people, but they are too 
timid to launch out. We must first have con- 
fidence in ourselves, then by our works and deeds 
others will be helped. 

I admire a woman who delights in working 
with the hand as well as the head; who, when she 
works, has something to show for her labor; and 
wherever she may chance to be, can adapt her- 
self to the surroundings, and there remain with- 
out assumption. These qualities we can find in 

8 



114 What Experience Has Taught 31 e 

the person of Mrs. Henry Linden, of Spring- 
field, Ohio, who is the author of "Scraps of 
Time, Etc.," and who deserves great commenda- 
tion for what she has accomplished by her own 
efforts and energy. 

It was during the time I was acting super- 
intendent of North Street African Methodist 
Episcopal Sunday-school, when there was a 
Sinking Fund Society organized in the Sunday- 
school for the purpose of helping children who 
could not come to the Sunday-school for the lack 
of proper clothing and encouragement. After 
our usual collection for the Sunday-school there 
was a basket passed, marked "Sinking Fund," 
and in it was placed one cent from each one 
present (if they had it), and this money was 
turned over to the treasurer of that society, 
whose officers consisted of a president, secretary, 
and treasurer. 

There was a standing lookout committee, 
whose duty it was to look after those children 
who were so unfortunate as not to have suitable 
clothes for church and Sunday-school. And to 
my surprise we found dozens of children who 



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As a Christian Worker 115 

did not and do not go to any Sunday-school nor 
church. Some of these children live in alleys, 
and streets, too, a distance of one square from 
the church. I find it so in every city. In the 
first place, the parents of these children will have 
to become interested in sending the child or chil- 
dren to the Sunday-school, and have them to un- 
derstand that, in case the child or children fail 
to attend Sunday-school after they have been 
clothed by the Sinking Fund Committee, the 
said clothes are confiscated. 

We find a great many children, though com- 
paratively naked, yet they refused to be clothed 
by that committee on account of their peculiar 
pride or feeling of independence. I have seen 
~ome of those children who came to Sunday- 
school by the aid of this committee contribute 
one cent to the Sinking Fund within one month 
after they were in attendance in the Sunday- 
school themselves. These children should be im- 
pressed that they are the future Church and that 
all the cares and responsibilities of the Church 
will some day fall upon them. 

I assure you that this organization was a 
great success and is to-day. 



116 What Experience Has Taught Me 

I find the reason why so many Sunday- 
schools stay on the drag is, because they lack the 
proper interest on the part of the superintend- 
ents and teachers in the Sunday-school work. 
The superintendent should be one among the 
first at Sunday-school, and always on time; and 
when the time comes to open he should do so if 
there are only three present besides himself or 
herself, as the case may be. 

There should be a great deal of singing in 
the Sunday-school; such songs as children can 
sing, and fancy. If you want to suit the child 
along this line, sing something quick and lively. 
Poor singing in Sunday-school sounds very dis- 
couraging to me. Good singing will keep the 
Sunday-school together a great deal better than 
a set of poor teachers. I mean by that, teachers 
who will not study the Sunday-school lesson, 
only on Saturday night or Sunday morning just 
before going to Sunday-school. 

The teachers who look over their lessons in 
that manner can not interest a class an hour con- 
cerning that lesson. But the teacher who reads 
the connection between the lessons, and reads the 
lessons as well once a day the week through, can 



As a Christian Worker 117 

interest any class an hour or two hours; this is 
what experience has taught me. Teachers 
should attend weekly teachers' meetings and fa- 
miliarize themselves with "Moninger," or some 
training for service course. Each class should 
he numbered and designated by a beautiful card 
suspended over each class by a nice and neat 
little chain, and these fastened to a rod, mov- 
able, so that they can all be gathered up after 
Sunday-school. 

There should be two banners in the Sunday- 
school room: one for the primary and interme- 
diate classes, and the other for the Bible or ad- 
vanced classes. 

No one should be elected as superintendent 
of a Sunday-school who is not competent to 
demonstrate or will not demonstrate the Sunday- 
school lesson or lessons. 

The superintendent should see to it that 
strangers are cared for, make them feel wel- 
come, and place them in suitable classes. 

I find that the Sinking Fund Society con- 
nected with the Sunday-school does a great deal 
of good to those schools where there is a general 
impression among the children who do not at- 



118 What Experience Has Taught Me 

tend any Sunday-school, and to a great many of 
those who do, that if I put on the very best I 
have or am able to get and go down to or up to, 
as the case may be, to that Sunday-school, they 
always make fun of me. I do n't believe that 
I will go about them. 

I have seen some Sunday-schools where the 
child really had a right to think so. I have 
known parents to fix up their child or children 
to send them off to one of the Sunday-schools 
on time, and the child or children would only 
go as far as the church door, and pass on and 
play until about the time Sunday-school is out, 
then go home and tell their parents that they 
had been to Sunday-school. 

Well, they had been to the door. 

I find that some Sunday-schools and 
churches are like individuals in this, that they 
reach the place where they become selfish. We 
should ever keep before us the exhortation of 
the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians, "Be ye kind 
one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one to 
another, even as God for Christ's sake hath for- 
given you." (Eph. 4: 32.) 




Dr. Thomas William Burton having the connubial knot tied, 
August 3, 1893, to Miss Hattie B. Taylor. 



People Should Think for Themselves 



CHAPTER 

PEOPLE SHOULD THINK FOR 
THEMSELVES 

It really amuses me sometimes to see how 
little some people think for themselves, espe- 
cially when they have been advised by one who 
has always proved to be a friend to them. Still 
they put their business in the hands of those who 
deprive them of their substance. At the same 
time they try to impress one that they are very 
wise and honest with it. 

The old folks as well as the young ones will 
do likewise. While talking with one of these 
peculiar people on one occasion, the following 
verses came to me: 

I AM NOT 31 AD. 

I am not mad,, but very sad, 

To think how they retreat; 
The stylish young as well as old 

Are always on the beat. 

121 



122 What Experience Has Taught Me 

They beat the rich, they beat the poor, 
They beat their supposed friend; 

They clamor after nonsense things, 
And get beat themselves in the end. 

Their debts and deeds they will not pay 
Unless by force they 're made; 

Hard times, they say, and wages low; 
Are always ashing aid. 

It *s not the amount which makes us rich, 
But it is what we save, instead; 

Economy is a noble thing, 
Look not upon it with a dread. 

There is another class of people who are easily 
influenced and led by those whose very inten- 
tions are to tear down. Yet, while those who 
are being led are innocent in a sense, they for- 
get to use their own common sense in regard to 
what the future may bring to them. For it is 
certain that they will be scattered one from the 
other by their own doings if let alone. 

God deals with individuals just as He deals 
with nations, and He deals with nations just as 
He deals with individuals. 



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People Should Think for Themselves 123 

There was a time, before the flood, when 
God saw that the wickedness of man was great 
in the earth, and that every imagination of the 
thoughts of his heart was only evil; this pro- 
voked God's wrath and caused the flood. ( Gen. 
6:5.) 

After the flood, and that the earth had been 
replenished, the people had become prolific as 
the sand of the sea, generation after generation 
had come upon the scene of action, the whole 
earth was of one language and of one speech. 
They became so prosperous in the land of 
Shinar, luxury and earthly pleasure at their 
command, they fancied within themselves that 
they would go to heaven in their own way; but 
God said to the Trinity, "Go to, let us go down, 
and there confound their language, that they 
may not understand one another's speech." 
(Gen. 11:7.) 

After this was done the people were scat- 
tered abroad from thence upon the face of all 
the earth, speaking different tongues, pursuing 
different vocations for a livelihood, and they be- 
gan to mold customs peculiar to each language. 



124 What Experience Has Taught Me 

Thus God showed them that the building of 
Babel must cease. 

So many people to-day are clamoring after 
new-fangled teachings, running pellmell to Sun- 
day baseball, Sunday park amusements, Sunday 
excursions, and many other unnecessary things, 
— all for the love of money. 

"For the love of money is the root of all 
evil; which, while some coveted after, they have 
erred from the faith, and pierced themselves 
through with many sorrows." (1 Tim. 6: 3-10.) 

If individuals cultivate this love for money 
to the extent that they forget the Sabbath, and 
do not hold it as a day devoted to pious medita- 
tion, a day intended as a principal testimony of 
faith in the Creator of the universe, they too 
forget the brotherhood of man and the Father- 
hood of God. If they persist in going this way 
they shall be punished according to the fruit of 
their doings. (Jer. 21:14.) 

If one has a great deal of business relations 
with different kinds of people, that person is 
no longer disappointed in them and can always 
read them aright. Of course, we have no power 



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People Should Think for Themselves 125 

of penetrating into their very souls and seeing 
the underlying motives which are at work there, 
but we can see and read enough so as to be 
warned of them while dealing with them or 
while being in their presence. 

I find it good policy to always speak well of 
a person unless you are talking to that person; 
if so, then you can tell him or her just what 
you please. When Christ was here upon earth 
in the form of man, mingling and dealing with 
men, He always spoke of the highest, the best, 
and the truest in men. We should always hold 
up and keep before us the honor of our great 
men and women ; we must make our own worthy 
history. 

A few months after the death of Paul Lau- 
rence Dunbar there was a day set apart in 
Springfield, Ohio, for his memorial, and of 
which I wrote the following verses: 

ALL HONOR TO THE DAY. 

All honor to the day we celebrate,, 

Bedecked as it is in flowers 
In memory of him who won his fame 

Through sunshine, clouds, and showers. 



126 What Experience Has Taught Me 

In a perpetual tone this day should be kept, 

Each year as the days go by,, 
Fresh in the minds of the American youth. 

And its purpose should never die. 

Teach them it J s the day that we have set apart 

To show our esteeming love 
For the one who shoved his poetic pen 

With a gift from Him who is above. 

Teach them that a mighty man has fallen, 
Though young when he left the stage; 

That he was a genius among his fellows, 
He was a monument of his age. 

He was one who stood erect and stalwart, 
Who could be seen near and far; 

He was master of his situation, — 
All honor to Paul Laurence Dunbar! 

May this memorial be an incentive 

For the young and for the old; 
May it be kept alive for generations, 

And its interest be forever told. 

May it be told with growing interest, 

Each year as we chance to meet, 
That a man is measured by his worth and fitness, 

In honor of such is a day we keep. 



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